Book Name: Slide (Roads, Book 1)
Goodreads Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18487180-slide
Author Name: Garrett Leigh
Author Bio:
Garrett Leigh is a British writer and book designer, currently working for Dreamspinner Press, Loose Id and Black Jazz Press. Her protagonists will always always be tortured, crippled, broken, and deeply flawed. Throw in a tale of enduring true love, some stubbly facial hair, and a bunch of tattoos, and you’ve got yourself a Garrett special.
When not writing, Garrett can generally be found procrastinating on Twitter, cooking up a storm, or sitting on her behind doing as little as possible. That, and dreaming up new ways to torture her characters. Garrett believes in happy endings; she just likes to make her boys work for it.
Garrett also works as a freelance cover artist for various publishing houses and independent authors under the pseudonym G.D. Leigh. For cover art info, please visit blackjazzpress.com
Author Contact:
Social media: Website: http://garrettleigh.com
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/Garrett_Leigh
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/garrettleighbooks
Cover art enquiries: blackjazzdesign@gmail.com
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Cover Artist: G.D. Leigh
Categories: Gay Fiction, Romance, Contemporary, M/M Romance, Fiction
Buy Links:
Blurb:
Don’t look back. Don’t you ever look back…
Shy tattoo artist Ash has a troubled past. Years of neglect, drug abuse, and life on the streets have taken their toll, and sometimes it seems the deep, unspoken bond with his lover is the only balm for wounds he doesn’t quite understand.
Chicago paramedic Pete is warmth, love, and strength—things Ash never knew he could have, and never even knew he wanted until Pete showed him. But fate is a cruel, cruel mistress, and when nightmares collide with the present, their tentatively built world comes crashing down.
Traumatic events in Pete’s work life distance him from home, and he doesn’t realize until it’s too late that Ash has slipped away. Betrayal, secrets, and lies unfold, and when a devastating coincidence takes hold, Pete must fight with all he has to save the love of his life.
How did you come up with this story? Tell us a little about it?
Slide was born from six little words: ‘He rarely let me fuck him…’ and the rest is, er, history, I guess. Though, I can’t deny Slide is a deeply personal book. Ash’s story isn’t my own, but there’s more of me in him than I care to admit most days.
It seems you like to write deep stories about flawed characters, have you or would you write something sweet, light and fluffy? Why?
My best attempt at lightness to date is coming out with Dreamspinner Press some time December/January. It’s a novella titled My Mate Jack, and it’s asweet-ish friends-to-lovers coming of age story.
I can’t promise it’s angst free, but it’s definitely lighter than my first attempt at lighter writing, which turned out to be Bullet…
Do you have any tattoos?
I have seven tattoos, some big some small, and plans for many, many more. Just don’t tell me mum 🙂
Did you listen to music while writing Slide? If so, what did you listen to? If not, why not?
I’d imagine so, it feels an awfully long time ago now. Given the dark tone of the whole series, I reckon it was probably some gritty drum-and-bass, or some dirty dubstep.
Are you a beach girl, a desert girl, or a mountain girl? What’s your favorite vacation spot?
I’d rather be at the top of a mountain, watching over the rest of the world, than stewing myself on the beach, but I don’t like the cold so…it’d have to be some mutant tropical mountain, I guess. As for holiday spots, I’m happy anywhere if I’ve got sunlight, water, nourishing food, a good book, and most of all, the people who make my world warm <3
What can we expect to see from you next?
Slide will be out in audiobook any day now, and then I’ve got…
Heart, out with Dreamspinner Press October 27th
My Mate Jack, out with Dreamspinner Press December/January
Lucky Man, out with Dreamspinner Press March 2015
Misfits, out with Riptide, March 2015
Ash was Texan by birth, but his southern roots only laced his speech when he was too tired to repress them… too tired to block out all the horrible shit that kept an invisible barrier between us.
He was just seventeen when his friend Ellie found him drawing on the streets of Philadelphia. He was homeless and drew comic book characters on the sidewalk for money. The way she told it, he was one of the best street artists in the city, but he said he just did it to survive. Ellie was in college at the time, and she spent the next three years trying to get him to go to a shelter. Eventually, she got her way, and when she moved back to Chicago a few months later, she asked him to come with her. It took him a year of procrastination and pulling his shit together, but after finishing his tattoo apprenticeship in Philly, he did just that.
Living together was a huge adjustment for both of us. Some days I thought we’d cracked it, but others….
I draped the comforter over us and tucked it around his shoulders. He settled against me with his arm stretched out across my torso. I ran my hand absently along his bicep and enjoyed the rare moment. Though he could be tactile when his mood was right, he rarely cuddled up to me so freely. Most times, he preferred our positions reversed—him on his back with his arms around me.
Curious, I pressed a kiss to the top of his sweat-dampened head. “You okay?”
“Yeah, I just missed you.”
I smiled into the darkness. “I missed you too.”
A light hum was his only answer, so I held him a bit tighter and made the most of having him curled against me. After a while, I felt him shift. I opened my eyes and quirked an eyebrow, too mellow to speak. He just stared at me, but his blazing eyes told me what I knew he found so hard to articulate.
I put my hand to his head and nudged it back down with a sad smile.
Tour Dates/Stops:
9/12: Rainbow Gold Reviews, Nephylim, Iyana Jenna
9/19: Parker Williams, Velvet Panic, Jade Crystal
9/26: MM Good Book Reviews, Smoocher’s Voice, Cate Ashwood
10/3: EE Montgomery, Inked Rainbow Reads, Regular Guys, Hot Romance
10/10: My Fiction Nook, Book Reviews and More by Kathy, Scattered Thoughts & Rogue Words
10/17: Emotion in Motion, Queer Town Abbey, Foxylutely Book Reviews
10/24: Fallen Angel Reviews, The Blogger Girls, Love Bytes
10/31: Amanda C. Stone, Prism Book Alliance, The Novel Approach
Rafflecopter Prize: E-Book copy of Slide
I’ve heard nothing but raves about the series!
One of my favorite series. Just go ahead and order all of the books. You won’t regret it!
Hi Garrett! This sounds like a very good book.
Hi Garrett, I love your books!